FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates generally to a dispenser for hard candies and medicaments in wafer form, each package of which is constituted by a stack of such wafers protectively sealed in an inner foil wrapper surrounded by a removable outer sleeve, and more particularly to a dispenser adapted to receive the roll and to sever and discharge therefrom one foil-wrapped wafer at a time.
Many hard candies and medicaments are fabricated in round wafer form and are packaged in a stack in which the wafers are protectively sealed in an inner foil wrapper to create a roll, the foil wrapper also enclosing the ends of the stack to maintain the contents of the roll in a hygienic condition. Surrounding the roll is a removable sleeve which is printed to identify the product. Candies and medicaments packaged in this fashion are generally referred to roll-type products.
In some instances, instead of disc-shaped wafers, the wafers are in annular form, as in the well-known "Lifesaver" roll candy products. Also commercially available in roll packages are medicaments such as "Rolaids" anti-acid wafers and "Clorets" breath deodorants. The invention is applicable to any roll-type, edible product.
In a typical product in which the wafers are stacked in a wrapped roll, in order for the user to obtain access to the contents, he must first tear off one end of the inner wrapper and the outer sleeve to release one wafer from the roll, being careful to remove no more of the wrapping than is necessary to expose the end wafer. Thereafter, as the user withdraws other wafers from the roll, he continues to peel away the wrapping.
In actual practice, few users exercise sufficient care in unwrapping the roll to prevent the stack from falling apart, as a consequence of which loose wafers are dispersed in the user's pocket or wherever else he stores the roll-type package.
It is known to provide mechanical dispensers for candies and medicaments in wafer form. Thus the Hinterreifer U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,284 shows a dispenser in which loose wafers are stacked within a tube on a spring-biased platform, the wafers being ejected laterally, one at a time, through an opening by means of a pivoted cover.
In the pill dispenser disclosed in the Kovac U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,056, the pills are stacked in a hollow casing on a spring-biased platform and are ejected through a side opening by means of an escapement mechanism. Similar dispensers are shown in the Huck U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,409 and in the MacDougall et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,422,991.
In all of these prior art dispensers, the wafers or pills must be loaded into the dispenser in a loose, unpackaged condition. Since this involves manual handling of the wafers, they are subject to contamination. Moreover, should the user wish to load a prior art dispenser with wafers taken from a roll-type package, he must first break open this package, and in the process of doing so he may scatter the wafers. Thus, apart from the difficulties involved in unwrapping the package, is the possibility of contamination when carrying out this action.
And while the prior art dispenser may initially be in sterile condition, because its interior wall is in contact with unpackaged wafers, with repeated use and reloading of the dispenser, the interior wall thereof may accumulate candy or medicament particles, as a result of which the dispenser is no longer in hygienic condition.